Chennai: A few professors of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, would be questioned over the reported suicide of Keralite student Fathima Latheef. The issue could be raised in the Parliament which has convened for the Winter Session on Monday as Kollam MP N K Premachandran has sought permission to raise it in the Lok Sabha. Fathima's father has been pressing for a fair probe and immediate arrest of people behind her death over a week ago.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch would interrogate IIT faculty including Sudarshan Padmanabhan, whose name was mentioned in a note on Fathima's mobile phone.
Meanwhile, Union Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam said that efficient officers were probing the case and the truth could be revealed after holding talks with the IIT authorities, including its Director.
The senior bureaucrat, who visited the IIT on Sunday, also urged to avoid circulating fake content on social media platforms that could adversely affect the investigation. The report would be handed over to the Union Human Resources Minister soon.
A native of Kollam in Kerala, Fathima was found dead at the college hostel on November 9. She was a first-year student of MA Hhumanities and Development studies (Integrated course).
Following her death on the campus, a holiday for one-and-a half months have been declared for the first-year batch. Even the semester exams have been postponed.
Police suspect it to be a case of suicide and the FIR states so.
Plea in court
The Tamil Nadu unit of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) would file a petition in the Madras High Court on Monday, seeking to take measures to avoid tragedies such as that involving Fathima. Over the last few years a few students at the IIT, Madras, had killed themselves.
The NSUI would also demand the setting up of a system, akin to the committee formed at the AIIMS in Delhi in 2007, at other central educational institutions to curb suicides among students.
MPs take up issue
The Kollam MP who has given a notice to discuss Fathima's case in the Lok Sabha had also sought for a probe during the meet of the parliamentarians held earlier.
Mavellikkara MP Kodikunnil Suresh too said that the incident would be raised in the House.
DMK leader T R Baalu and CPM member T K Rangarajan too demanded that the issue be discussed in Parliament.
